Who we work for

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was formed on April 1st 2002 from the merger of four former local NHS Trusts based in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and North Manchester. The merger was sold to the public on one issue; that it would improve healthcare for the local populations. Since the merger was given the go ahead, the only real change has been the transfer of services from one hospital to another as the new Trust tries to organise itself in a more systematic way but paying scant attention to local sensibilities at times. In doing so, it has not endeared itself to either patients or to staff who were promised pre-merger, "Nobody can force you to work on another site if you don't want to." The reality is, "Move with your service or you could be out of a job." There have been no redundancies since the merger but many middle and senior managers have left and there has been a drain of skills into surrounding health trusts. Pennine has refused the request of the trade unions to issue an unequivocal 'no compulsory redundancies' statement.

The Trust looks to be developing along a two plus two model with many of the more acute services being centred on the Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital whilst Bury's Fairfield General Hospital and the Rochdale Infirmary are left to wonder whether or not they'll just be saddled with the leftovers. In Rochdale, there have been angry letters in the local newspaper, mass meetings with the local MP, Lorna Fitzsimon and disaffected consultant staff telling their tales of woe to anyone who'll listen. They've even managed to upset the Catholic Church, not normally known for its radicalism which under local hero and turbulent priest Fr. Neary, has lodged a very successful 'Save Our Hospital' campaign.

Relations between unions and management are generally felt to have been rather poor since the merger with the process of consultation being very hit and miss. The final three months of both financial years of the Trust's two- year existence have meant that belts have been tightened so far that UNISON PAH has had serious concerns over staffing levels and safety issues. Things were so bad in December 2003 that they even tried to snatch the traditional free Xmas breakfast at North Manchester General Hospital and were only shamed into retreat after staff, backed by UNISON PAH had a whip-round on the E-mail system in order to save the festive perk. In their Scrooge-like attempt to bring home the bacon, they were left with egg all over their faces!

Pennine Acute has almost ten thousand staff and about nine thousand of these will shortly undergo a massive pay and grading review under the governments much-vaunted 'Agenda For Change'. The employer is looking to AFC with enthusiasm in the belief that it will end many of the pay and grading anomalies that undoubtedly exist within Pennine. UNISON PAH Branch, along with other unions is less optimistic and knows that it will have to deal with almost one thousand staff who look set to come out as losers in the big shake up.